Chapter Text
Caesar Flickerman led Snow and Katniss away from the stage; but within a few feet, two big men were walking on either side of President Snow. Katniss scowled.
Caesar led the other four people into an employee area, then to a door. Caesar took out keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. “Your meeting room,” he announced.
Snow and the bodyguards walked in, and the bodyguards did bodyguard-type things that did not take long (since the room had clearly been empty of people). But Katniss, meanwhile, had remained standing next to Caesar in the hallway.
“Come in, Miss Everdeen,” Snow said impatiently.
Katniss said, “Before I go in, your men come out. You wanted to talk to me alone? Then that’s how we’ll be: alone. No bodyguards, no Peeta and Haymitch, just you and me.”
“My bodyguards go everywhere with me, to protect me.”
“R-i-ight. If they’re any good at their jobs at all, they’ve figured out I’m not even carrying a peashooter right now, and I’d have to stand on tip-toes to punch you in the throat. You’re bullshitting me—you don’t want them here for protection, you want them here to frighten the cannonbait girl who dared outplay the Careers, and who then outplayed the Gamemakers.”
Snow glared. “Miss Everdeen, come in now, or I will have Hefaestus or Pietus carry you in.”
“You want to cheat—why am I not surprised? You and I are soulmates, which means we are equal somehow, and we can’t be equal if you have big men with you who are awaiting your orders to kill me! So I’m staying out here till they leave or they carry me in yelling.”
“If I may, Mr. President,” Caesar said calmly. Katniss suspected that Caesar had a lot of experience at calming down angry President Snow.
Caesar continued, “I suspect this ‘soulmates’ thing is as much a mystery to you and to Katniss as it is to me, am I right?” Snow didn’t answer with words, but he frowned for a second. “Mr. President, you two can’t uncover the truth together if Katniss feels under threat the whole time. Imagine if you went to the archery range to talk to Katniss, and she kept a loaded bow in her hands while she was talking to you. No matter what she said, you would feel threatened, right? Let me show your bodyguards where the vending machines are.”
“Go with him,” Snow snapped.
After the bodyguards walked past Katniss and began to follow Caesar down the hall, Katniss gave Snow the same sarcastic bow that she had given the Gamemakers after she had shot the apple out of the pig’s mouth. Only then did she walk into the meeting room.
****
Seconds later
In Caesar’s meeting room
Along one wall, Katniss saw five devices that looked like holoprojectors, except they also had television screens and keyboards. All over the other three walls were glued sheets of paper that were dense with computer-printed text; different sheets of paper were connected by strings of yarn in different colors. From one paper, Katniss learned that Foxface’s name was actually Windmilla Finch—
Behind Katniss, Snow demanded, “How can you be my soulmate? Are you not fifteen?”
Katniss turned to face him. “No, I’m sixteen. Sixteen years and two months, just about. I was born on—”
“May 8th, HG 58. Shit. I never thought to check your birthday.”
“And I always thought my soulmate would be my age, more or less. Not white-haired and wrinkled.”
Then Katniss stared down Snow. “I don’t know why Peeta and I aren’t soulmates, because I love Peeta and he loves me—”
“You mean the ‘Star-Crossed Lovers’ romance was not merely an act to get sponsors?”
Katniss gave Snow a You’re stupid if you think this look, then she continued: “Whereas I can never, not in a million years love you, even if you were sixteen instead of ... whatever age you are.”
“I am seventy-eight, Miss Everdeen.”
“Hey, call me Katniss, okay? Nobody ever calls me ‘Miss Everdeen’ except at Victor Health Hospital. You and I are soulmates, which means equal, which means first names. Though I have to say, Cor-i-o-lanus is a mouthful. I think I’ll just call you Cory.”
“No, Katniss. I grudgingly accept you addressing me by my first name, but a nickname is too familiar. As you just said, you plan never to be my wife, lover, or girlfriend. My name is Coriolanus—learn to pronounce it.”
“Very well, Coriolanus,” Katniss said. The long name was a little easier to say, the second time.
Snow said, “Before either of us say any more, let us agree never to lie to one another.”
Katniss laughed. “Okay, but are you sure you want to go down that road? Because I’m sure your days are full of people telling you what you want to hear; how long has it been since someone looked you in the eyes and told you, ‘You’re full of shit’?”
“Not often. Almost always, the speaker is Avoxed or executed shortly afterward.”
Katniss laughed again. “Then it’s good for me that you sent your bodyguards elsewhere, isn’t it?” Then a thought came to her. “Unless they’re listening outside the door, ready to burst in?”
“They are not. They are wherever Mr. Flickerman led them to, and they will remain there until I stand in the hallway and yell for them.” Snow raised his eyebrows. “This is no lie.”
In the middle of the meeting room were twelve simple tables and their chairs. Katniss sat in a chair and looked at Snow. “You and I have to figure out why God, or The Cosmic Force, or The Spirit of Panem, or whatever, picked you and me as soulmates. So let’s start with, If you didn’t know I was your soulmate, how would you describe me?”
“A showoff, who is always drawing attention to yourself, starting with that fake ‘I volunteer for my sister’ stunt.”
“What?”
“I must say, you did some fast thinking there—unless you bribed Effie Trinket to draw your own sister’s name from the ball?”
“You are telling me, Coriolanus, that when Prim was Reaped and I volunteered for her, I did it for some other reason than to save my sister’s life? What reason would that be, please?”
“To win the generous Victor stipend, to be ‘bathed in riches.’ It is obvious.”
Katniss laughed again. “R-i-ight, because tributes from Twelve find it to be so easy to kill Careers and to become Victors. I’d have better luck digging in my yard, hoping to uncover a vein of gold.”
“So you did not volunteer hoping for the prize money?”
“Listen, I volunteered for my sister expecting to die—probably in the Bloodbath. But the way I figured it, I had a teeny, tiny chance to win”—Katniss held her thumb and index finger almost touching—“whereas Prim had no chance to win. But I was no cocky Career, thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve got this in the bag.’ I expected to die. So I’m no showoff, and anybody from Twelve would laugh, hearing me called that.”
“But you were a showoff during the Tribute parade. And later, wearing the burning interview dress.”
“Those outfits were Cinna’s ideas, not mine. Me, a clothing-design genius? This is something else that would make Twelves laugh.”
“You were a showoff when you sang to your young ally from District Eleven when she was dying. You were again a showoff minutes later, when you covered her dead body with flowers. People in the Capitol have told me they found those scenes disturbing, not entertaining to watch.”
“Why should I care what rainbows thought? I sang the song I sing to Prim, to honor my dying friend Rue, and I did the flowers-thing for all the people in Eleven who knew Rue and who could only watch helplessly as she slipped away. I don’t decide Right or Wrong by whether rainbows think something is right or wrong.” Katniss gave Snow a piercing stare.
“Fine, maybe you are not a showoff. But you did not follow the rules in your Games.”
“That’s because there are no rules. When Clove threatened to torture me, live on holo, just so she could get sponsor-pledges, no rule said she couldn’t do that. On hologram, I’ve watched tributes kill their allies in their sleep—such a dishonorable act never cost anybody the crown. But maybe you mean the rule that says, ‘If you’re not from One, Two, or Four, you’re not supposed to fight back.’ Well, fuck that rule, and fuck Seneca Crane, and I don’t apologize for messing with Seneca Crane’s head with my berries stunt, any more than he’s apologized to me for messing with my head with his werewolf-mutts!”
Snow said, “It’s highly unlikely that Mr. Crane will apologize to anyone for anything, being as he’s dead.” Snow looked at Katniss with one raised eyebrow, as if to say, And it’s all your fault.
Katniss said, “Don’t blame me for his death. I’m not the person here with bodyguards and who can command Peacekeepers.”
“I would not have ordered him killed if you had followed the traditions, Katniss.”
“If I had ‘followed the traditions,’ Peeta would be dead now. No.” Then Katniss smiled. “You tell me I did wrong, but you gave Peeta and me the crown anyway. So now it’s your ‘berries stunt.’ ”
Snow looked stunned.
Katniss said, “How would I describe me? I volunteered for Prim because it was the only way to keep Prim safe, once she was Reaped. Once I got in the Games, I used everything I could use to win the Games, not so I could be rich, but because as a Victor, I can keep Prim safe. Then later, when I realized I was in love with Peeta, I tried to also keep Peeta safe. I did whatever it took, for however long it took, to keep Prim and Peeta safe, and to hell with all rules!”
“This is astonishing,” said Snow. “The last part of what you said, about doing ‘whatever it took, for however long it took ... and to hell with all rules’—this describes how I approach being president of Panem.”
Katniss said, “Except that with you, the ‘rules’ that you say ‘to hell with’ include love, kindness, and loyalty. You absolutely don’t get that when I volunteered for my sister, when I laid flowers on Rue, and when I refused to kill Peeta at the end, I wasn’t doing these things to work some angle. You don’t understand me because you’re evil. You are the most evil man I have ever met, and I want to scream because I’m bound to you for the rest of our lives!”
Snow snapped, “I am not evil, I am practical.”
“Practical? Practical? You’re perfectly willing to hold Hunger Games for a thousand years, and that’s practical?”
He shrugged. “The rebels signed the Treaty of the Treason, seventy-four years ago; I’m just enforcing the treaty.”
Then Snow’s face showed anger. “You don’t like being bound to ‘evil’ me? I don’t like having the most disrespectful Victor of all bound to me either. I mean, you’re more of a loose cannon than even Abernathy was.”
Katniss was puzzled. “You mean Haymitch?”
“You’ve never watched the tape of his Games?”
“No. Should I?”
“Forget I said anything.”
****
Seconds later
Snow took several calming breaths, then he said, “Katniss, you are not what I expected.”
“Really? Because I’m sure nobody in Twelve is surprised by anything I did.”
“I figured you were like everyone else, pretending to be good, good, good, when really they’re out to get something from me.”
“You should meet my sister Prim sometime. Or Peeta. They really are good. Peeta once took a beating to help someone who really needed the help.”
“You did not take the hint I dropped. How curious. What, if anything, do you want from me?”
Katniss looked at him, puzzled. “Nothing, beyond my Victor stipend, and my mansion, and whatever goodies come from being a Victor. Give me what your ‘special film’ promises me, and I’ll go back to Twelve and you’ll never hear from me again ever, except when I’m mentoring.”
“So you’re not asking me to increase your stipend above the standard, or to give you a free apartment in the Capitol?”
“No, why would I ask for those? And if you’re offering, don’t. It wouldn’t be fair to Peeta or Haymitch if I got stuff they didn’t.”
Then Katniss snapped her fingers. “Actually, there is something I ask you for, Coriolanus.”
“What?” Snow said warily.
“The report on the mine disaster in Twelve that happened in January, HG 70. Afterward, a bunch of rainb—Capitols came to Twelve, they went into the mine, they interviewed miners—but whatever report they wrote, nobody in Twelve has seen it. Not Mayor Undersee, not the miners, nobody. And sure as hell, nothing has been done from that report. My father died in that accident, so I want that report.”
Snow said, “I will send you every scrap of paper about the mine disaster that the Capitol has. I also will send you another document.”
“Another document? About what?”
“I won’t talk about it now—who knows who is listening? But I will send you this other document, and I will ask you for your honest thoughts as a District person.”
“Ookaay...”
Then Katniss looked Snow in the eyes. “If you’re going to dig up the mine-disaster report for me, I owe you. What do I do for you in return?”
“Nothing. In fact, there was something that I was maybe going to ask of you, before I knew you were my soulmate, but now I have decided I will not ask it of you.”
Katniss was puzzled again. “Is it something I would not be bothered by, if I did it for you, or something I would be bothered by?”
“You would be very bothered. But I have decided I shall not ask this of my soulmate Katniss.”
“Thanks, I guess. But in the meantime, I still owe you.”
“Understood,” Snow replied. “But I cannot see how I can ever collect.”
Katniss said, “You’re not what I expected either. If I had said ‘I owe you’ to President Snow of the crowning ceremony, I would have expected him to say, ‘Fine, scrub the floors in the Presidential Mansion for a year.’ ”
“Katniss, I promised not to lie to you. If you had said to me ‘I owe you’ an hour ago, I would have had you doing much worse than a year of scrubbing floors. I was angry with you.”
Katniss nodded. She was quiet for several seconds, then she said, “Going back to something you said a minute ago: I never thought I would feel sorry for the president of Panem. But it must be awful dealing with people who act nice around you, and you never know whether they’re nice because they like you, or because they want something from you—and this goes on every day. As a coal-miner’s daughter in Twelve, I never have this problem; if someone seems to like me, he or she does like me.”
Snow smiled like the uncle whom Katniss had never had. “My dear, I suspect those days are over. You’re not only a Victor now, you are ‘the Girl on Fire’ and half of ‘the Star-Crossed Lovers of District Twelve.’ I predict everyone will want to claim you as their friend, or want to ask you for money, or something.”
Katniss shrugged. “So long as it’s not Twelves trying to cozy up to me, I can handle it.”
Then Katniss said, “By the way, Coriolanus, I’m not angry at you anymore.”
Snow replied, “And I am no longer angry at you, Katniss. Shall we head to the banquet?”
****
During the limousine ride
Snow said to Katniss, “You told me that you expected not to win. Yet you did win. Why do you think you won?”
“Because I wanted to win more than the Careers did. They only wanted bragging rights, but I needed to go home to my sister.”
After a pause, Katniss asked, “There will be booze and ‘fun pills’ at this banquet, won’t there?”
“In large quantities, yes.”
“But you yourself never touch the stuff, right?”
“I will drink two glasses of champagne, and take all night to do so. Pills I don’t touch.”
Katniss smiled at Snow. “I like that, that you’re disciplined. I am too. I mean, I haven’t been offered booze back in Twelve, and nobody in Twelve has ‘fun pills’ to offer anybody, but I’ve already decided that when I’m offered that shit tonight, I’m going to say no.”
“What about alcohol as a way to cope with stress? I am sure this is why Mr. Abernathy drinks so much.”
“If my life gets stressful, I’ll find other ways to cope.”
“Katniss, we have just found another way we are alike.”
****
Minutes later, at the Victory Banquet
The Presidential Mansion
As a very relieved-looking Peeta took Katniss in his arms, Katniss watched Snow stride up to a potbellied man in his fifties who was wearing a purple wig and a bright-orange suit. Whatever Snow was saying to the man was accompanied by a shake of Snow’s head.
The purple-wigged man argued, though Katniss could not hear the words. “No, Septicus!” Katniss heard Snow yell, louder than all the other talk in the banquet room.
The purple-wigged man turned to glare at Katniss and Peeta, before stomping away to the open bar.
Peeta said to Katniss, “He’s some high muckety-muck in Snow’s Cabinet. You do not want to hear the questions he asked me about you. Or about me.” Peeta shivered with disgust.
Then Peeta smiled at Katniss. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
She replied, “I am okay, can you believe it? The talk with Snow went better than I thought it would.”
When Katniss caught Haymitch giving her a worried look, she smiled at her mentor and gave him a thumb-up.